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South West Trains Woes

Significantly fewer trains will operate during this period, with Esher and Hersham expected to be the worst hit.

South West Trains estimates passengers at these stations will face waits of between 30 and 60 minutes.

Passengers at Clapham Junction can expect to wait 45 minutes, while passengers at Waterloo, Vauxhall and Wimbledon might be waiting for half an hour.

Commuters using Weybridge, Worcester Park, Walton-on-Thames and Woking face waiting up to 20 minutes for a train.

Passengers are also being advised to avoid changing at Clapham Junction or Vauxhall as queues will be in place for passengers changing there as well.

The £800 million upgrade will take 28 days to complete (Image: Chris Ison/PA Wire)

Becky Lumlock, Network Rail's route managing director, said the £800 million of work at Waterloo and elsewhere on routes to the south west is the largest upgrade in decades and will increase capacity by 30%.

This will allow an extra 45,000 people to travel each morning and afternoon.

She said: "Doing major improvement work is always disruptive, so we're providing these estimates on waiting times to make sure that passengers have everything they need to plan agead.

"At the same time, we're also continuing to advise passengers to travel earlier or later than normal to avoid the busiest times of day, or to consider working from home where possible.

"I fully appreciate there's never a good time to close any section of the railway, but we'll be doing everything we can to make journeys as smooth as possible, and passengers will see extra staff at stations who will be on hand to provide information and advice."

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Adam Piddington, customer service director at South West Trains, said: "Asking passengers to queue outside stations is never a decision we take lightly but we do expect these works to cause some temporary inconvenience for our passengers and we want to be as honest as possible.

"We have carried out an extensive 12 month campaign to raise awareness of the works taking place and we ask passengers for their patience while these works are carried out."

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